Nintendo shares go up as more people download Pokemon Go

It hasn’t even had its worldwide release, but already Pokemon Go has taken over our news and social media feeds. And the good news for Nintendo, which co-proejcted the game with Google’s Niantic, is that it has also sent their shares soaring to unprecedented heights. The Japanese company has been struggling to keep their business afloat these past few years, so finally having a successful mobile app is a big thing for them, especially now that it’s translating into better market value for their stocks.

In just a few days since Pokemon Go was officially released in the US, Australia, and New Zealand, the resulting craze over the game has resulted in an additional $9 billion worth of market value to Nintendo Co. Shares rose 25% on Monday after similar rises on Thursday and Friday. They now have a market capitalization of $28 billion and even though some are still skeptical that they will be able to sustain this, it’s still a pretty big deal. It is already the highest-grossing and most downloaded app in the countries where it’s available.

When Nintendo first ventured into mobile apps with Miitomo released last March, it was met with indifference and they were pretty disappointed with the numbers. It was actually surprising that it has taken them this long to go into mobile games and they instead focused on their console game business which is already struggling. But now that Pokemon Go has become a phenomenon, the question is whether it will be able to sustain its growth. The game is free but has in-app purchases starting at $1 And given how crazy some people are about the game, you can be assured of a lot of IAPs happening.

There is still no news when it will be officially released in other countries, but they did say that they are pressing pause on that for now since their servers are pretty much overloaded. Until they find a solution to that, the rest of the world would have to look on in envy as players in the three countries have fun running around hunting those digital, little monsters.